India banks bad loans up 22.8% in FYO8

New Delhi: Unprovisioned bad loans of Indian banks rose 22.8% in the fiscal year 2007/08, the junior finance minister told parliament on Friday, and most of such loans were to the industrial, service and retail sectors.

Net non-performing assets of the 79 banks in India rose to Rs246.75 billion by end March 2008, equal to 1% of their total loans, Pawan Kumar Bansal said in reply to a question.

The total bad loan portfolio of banks stood at Rs566.7 billion on 31 March 2008, Bansal said. Banks had lent Rs23.62 trillion in that period.

Bad loans of the industries, services and retail sectors made up Rs469.4 billion, Bansal said, while the remaining 17% was to the agricultural sector.

The banks wrote off Rs116.61 billion of loans in 2007/08, which amounted to 0.5% of lending, Bansal said.